On March 19, 2003 the EPA published the finale rule entitled "Revisions to the Water Quality Planning and Management Regulation and Revisions to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program in Support of Revisions to the Water Quality Planning and Management Regulation", otherwise known as "the July 2000 rule" whic was published in the Federal Register on July 13, 2000. The July 2000 rule amended and clarified existing regulations implementing a section of the Clean Water Act (CWA) that requires States to identify waters that are not meeting applicable water quality standards and to establish pollutant budgets, called Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), to restore the quality of those waters. The July 2000 rule also amended EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (‘‘NPDES’’) regulations to include provisions addressing implementation of TMDLs through NPDES permits.
EPA withdrew the July 2000 rule, rather than allow it to go into effect on April 30, 2003, because EPA believed that significant changes would need to be made to the July 2000 rule before it could represent a workable framework for an efficient and effective TMDL program.